Stan Lee’s Work Force Book 1, Chapter 4: The Man

Alter-Ego brings Dorothy to Stan’s office. The first thing she notices is that his door is labeled: The Generalissimo. Alter-Ego pushes it and it creaks open. Dorothy peers in and sees what might be considered a desk buried under mounds of papers and artwork. TACK TACK TACK. She hears the clacking of a keyboard. Upon hearing the door groan, the typing stops, and a voice asks, “Nelson? Is that you?”

“Nick, Stan. It’s Nick.”

“Nicholas!”

“Sure, that works. I have Dorothy Su, the new hire the agency sent over.”

Stan jumps up from behind the pile of work. He immediately bounds forward across the room. He’s about to trip over a pile of books stacked on the floor when Alter-Ego deftly shoves them out of the way with his foot.

“So you’re my new Office Manager? Good luck managing this group of weirdos!”

Stan swings his arm wide and knocks a potted plant off of a filing cabinet. Alter-Ego lunges forward and catches it. “Do you know what we do here, Dolores?” Stan asks.

“I have an idea…”

“We write and produce comic books,” Stan says while opening both his arms wide. Alter-Ego ducks, barely missing being accidentally slapped in the face. “Now I only hire a certain type of person here at POW! Those with extra ordinary powers. Some people say that’s crazy! They ask, ‘How can you run an office full of zany characters like that?’ But I believe it adds a bit of spice to the finished product. If you’re writing about superheroes, you might as well go right to the source! Am I right?”